In today’s digital-first world, seamless communication is vital for student recruitment and engagement. Recognizing this, WhatsApp has become a crucial tool for educational institutions looking to streamline operations and drive enrollments.
In the latest edition of #illuminateByMeritto we brought together two expert speakers, Aditi Mathur, Head – Payments on WhatsApp, India at Meta, and Antriksh Kumar, Chief Manager – Revenue Operations at Meritto, to discuss how institutions can strategically leverage WhatsApp Business API to enhance interactions across the student lifecycle. Their combined expertise provided key insights, innovative strategies, and best practices which can help institutions to boost engagement and improve enrollment outcomes.
The evolution of WhatsApp as a global communication platform
WhatsApp has transformed from a personal messaging app into a powerful business communication tool.
Aditi Mathur highlighted “WhatsApp started as a personal messaging app, but with the digital transformation accelerated by COVID-19, it has evolved into a primary communication channel for businesses, including educational institutions. Today, it enables a personalized approach to student engagement, from inquiry to enrollment, ensuring institutions can connect meaningfully at every stage”.
Antriksh Kumar reinforced this perspective, emphasizing that institutions must go beyond traditional outreach methods and leverage a data-driven, personalised engagement strategy to maximize conversions. He highlighted how targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram helps in attracting leads, while WhatsApp API plays a crucial role in nurturing these leads through continuous engagement with students and parents.
A holistic approach to student engagement
Both the speakers emphasized the importance of a targeted approach in leveraging WhatsApp API for student engagement. They discussed how institutions should use data-driven insights to personalize communication, ensuring students and parents receive relevant information based on their journey. While WhatsApp enhances engagement, it cannot fully replace institutional websites; instead, it should complement them by delivering rich media content like videos, carousels, and interactive forms to keep students engaged.
Overcoming drop-offs in WhatsApp message delivery
An emerging challenge discussed during this webinar was the drop-off in WhatsApp message delivery rates and how institutions can improve their engagement strategies. Both stressed the importance of bi-directional communication, ensuring students engage actively rather than just receiving messages. They elaborated on how Meta is refining its algorithms, implementing frequency capping based on user interaction, and optimizing lead conversion through personalized and utility-driven messaging. Meta is also monitoring how many messages are read by students and adjusting its approach accordingly.
Furthermore, they highlighted that institutions should balance marketing and utility-driven messages, which can create a more effective outreach strategy that drives conversions.
Avoiding common pitfalls in WhatsApp engagement
The talking points revolved around the importance of institutions having a clear objective to begin with when using WhatsApp. Understanding the problem that institutions aim to solve is key to leveraging the platform effectively. Some of the most common pitfalls institutions should avoid include Mass messaging without personalization leads to disengagement. Instead, institutions should deploy marketing automation to send targeted, personalized messages that resonate with students at different stages of their journey.
Balancing automation with personalization at scale
Aditi emphasized that personalized communication fosters stronger relationships with students and parents, helping to address common challenges like low engagement seen in SMS and email. Consolidating all interactions on a single platform strengthens data insights—providing a clear view of where students come from, where they drop off, and their engagement levels.
And on the other hand, Antriksh highlighted the importance of leveraging WhatsApp utility templates for critical communication, ensuring timely and structured messages at each stage of the student journey. Deploying a balanced mix of utility, transactional, and service messages enhances engagement and drives higher conversions.
Innovations for enhancing student engagement
Aditi Mathur highlighted some of Meta’s latest innovations that are reshaping education communication like:
- WhatsApp API now includes a voice calling symbol, enabling more effective lead generation and nurturing.
- Gen AI is transforming the landscape and also institutions can engage students more with rich media like images, videos and carousels which allows students to scroll through visual content, avail coupons, and drive conversions.
- Whatsapp also provides a native payment system that supports transactions with UPI, bank etc providing greater control over transactions.
- Running targeted ads enables seamless student data capture within a single form, reducing friction and simplifying the enrollment journey.
Antriksh expanded on this by emphasizing the importance of WhatsApp API as a unified engagement platform, ensuring seamless communication across all stages. He highlighted the strategic use of WhatsApp utility templates to automate interactions and maintain timely updates.
Ensuring privacy & security in student communication
Aditi Mathur highlighted “Security and privacy are at the forefront of everything we do at WhatsApp. WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption ensures that all student communications remain private, with only the user and the educational institution able to access the information. Additionally, while chatbots may be used to interact with students, any data captured is securely stored and handled by the institution. WhatsApp’s compliance with global privacy regulations, including GDPR, guarantees that data is protected. The app follows the digital privacy laws rigorously, ensuring institutions meet regulatory standards”.
To this Antriksh Kumar added how WhatsApp’s strong security, encryption, and compliance with global privacy laws allow educational institutions to engage students securely. With features like WhatsApp Channels, institutions can efficiently scale communication while maintaining data protection.
Tips for institutions adopting WhatsApp API
As the webinar concluded, both speakers left the audience with valuable advice on how institutions can maximize WhatsApp API’s potential:
- For institutions new to WhatsApp API, integrating it with a centralized education CRM like Meritto ensures a structured and impactful engagement strategy.
- For institutions already using WhatsApp but struggling with results, analyzing drop-off points, refining messaging strategies, and leveraging analytics can significantly improve outcomes.
Conclusion
This insightful webinar shed light on how WhatsApp API is transforming student engagement and recruitment, from inquiry to placement, for educational organizations. The discussion shared by Aditi Mathur and Antriksh Kumar serves as a roadmap for educational institutions striving to stay ahead and continue scaling enrollments and enhance student experience. With a robust and secure messaging platform like integrated WhatsApp Business API, institutions can create seamless, real-time interactions that nurture student relationships and drive enrollment success. For more insights, watch this full webinar here: Leveraging WhatsApp API across the student lifecycle
Also, all this requires a technology partner by your side. And that partner is Meritto. Discover how a centralized, purpose-built Meritto’s education CRM can empower your organization to build meaningful student connections, maximize conversions, and drive sustainable growth. Contact us today to learn more.
